Companies moving towards emerging technologies

8th June 2018

By: Jessica Oosthuizen

Creamer Media Reporter

     

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There is strong indication that manufacturing companies will in the short term start using emerging technologies.

This is according to ‘The Mobile Corporation in South Africa 2018’ report, based on research conducted by research organisation World Wide Worx, in partnership with enterprise resource planning software provider Syspro.

“The report shows that large South African corporations show a rapidly growing readiness to adopt emerging technologies in the near future,” says Syspro product manager Deirdre Fryer.

Through the research, Syspro wanted to understand which technologies businesses are focusing on and using to align and understand its market space better. Of the 400 companies that participated in the research, 25.8% are manufacturing companies.

Fryer explains that technology use in these companies, in terms of access to information and convenient communication, such as using emails and the Internet, is prominent. Some of the companies are already using technologies, such as robotics, artificial intelligence, augmented reality and machine learning, she adds.

However, for many of the companies that participated in the research, the cost of these technologies is one of the main reasons that such technologies are not implemented. She adds that South Africa has “some catching up to do” in the technology sphere, and many companies have old equipment that is not compatible with new technologies. “Buying new equipment and bringing in these technologies can be quite costly.”

Some companies find these technologies complex, which further hampers their uptake. The focus of Syspro is to simplify the use of technologies so that clients can better leverage and benefit, Fryer comments.

“We want to help clients understand that these technologies could drive their business’ optimisation and, in turn, improve efficiency, which often shows a good return on investment. “Using the most suitable technology in the right areas can give rise to large cost reductions for businesses.”

Fryer believes the manufacturing industry is in a positive space and has the potential to grow in the next few years. Syspro will play its part by making technologies available to industry in an easy to use and understandable format and driving the uptake of beneficial technologies.

Edited by Zandile Mavuso
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor: Features

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